Netflix’s Plan for World Domination Begins This Spring

No longer content to be your go-to source for holiday binge-watches and Friends reruns, Netflix is poised to take over the world with a crowded slate of original programming, and it all starts this March.

At the Television Critics Association winter press tour this morning, Netflix announced the premieres of its prestigious new lineup of programming. If you had a hard enough time keeping on top of House of Cards, Marco Polo, and Orange Is the New Black, good luck with this schedule:

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a comedy from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, the creators of 30 Rock, and starring The Office’s Ellie Kemper, debuts Friday, March 6.

Bloodline, a dark family drama from the creators of Damages and starring Kyle Chandler and Linda Cardellini, is looking to fill the Coach Taylor hole in your heart. It will debut Friday, March 20.

Daredevil, the first installment in Marvel’s new Defenders franchise, starring Charlie Cox, will debut Friday, April 10.

That may not seem that overwhelming at first glance. It’s far less crowded than any given network slate. But when you bear in mind the returning shows (The Fall, January 16; House of Cards, February 27; Orange Is the New Black, T.B.A.; Marco Polo, T.B.A.) and the Netflix model of releasing an entire season at once, things get a little more daunting. What’s clear is that the more Netflix pushes into the original-programming realm (and, emboldened by the popularity and critical/awards attention around shows like Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards, why wouldn’t they?), the more they threaten to change the TV (and possibly film) model for good.

Gone are the days when you have to wait a week between shows. Anecdotal evidence and psychological studies show that we absorb shows differently when we consume in one big, greedy gulp. Netflix is aware that its model feeds your binge-watching addiction. During the T.C.A. presentation today, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos said:

While most people don’t sit down and watch 13-hour binges of
television, but what they do watch is more than one. It’s pretty rare
for anyone to sit down and watch Marco Polo when it premieres and
watch one hour of it. They typically watch two to three episodes in a
sitting.

The more that (commercial-free) kind of content is available, the more viewership will shift from the weekly grind of network and cable. There are downsides to this shift. Namely, a communal aspect of viewership and fandom is lost. Because everyone binges at a different pace, you don’t get to watch Orange Is the New Black at the same time as your friends and co-workers. Could this mean the end of weekly water-cooler conversation?

The Netflix model, like many online options, also narrows the field when it comes to the joys of accidental discovery. Sure, Netflix has browse and recommendation functions (though the recommendation from an online algorithm is a lot colder than what you would get from a friend or trusted critic). You’re less and less likely, these days, to randomly flip the channel and land on an unexpected gem.

Sarandos is aware of this aspect of the Netflix model. He told the T.C.A. crowd, “If a show offends your sensibility you just just don’t push ‘Play’…there is no way you’re going to stumble on it.” But therein, clearly, lies a Netflix advantage. Sarandos went on to explain that this aspect “gives you license to push the envelope.” In other words, watchdog groups can’t object to the content of, say, Orange Is the New Black, because there’s no reason a parent can claim lack of control over the content.

So that, in a nutshell, is the upshot of this brave, new Netflix world. If the streaming service is determined to keep us chasing a new binge-watchable show every three weeks, at the very least it’s ground-breaking, envelope-pushing, high-quality television. At least, for the most part.